Two men have been remanded in custody charged with possession of almost £2 million worth of drugs seized in Northern Ireland earlier this week.
The accused are both from Bolton in England and were detained when police officers raided a warehouse near Castledawson, Co Derry.
Officers found 16kg of cocaine and 30kg of cannabis in a consignment of frozen green beans.
The haul is estimated to be worth £1.9m.
One of the accused is 53-year-old Elyas Saddique.
He is the registered owner of the fruit and vegetable wholesale company where the drugs were found.
Omagh Magistrates Court was told he had also booked flights from Manchester to Belfast and rented a van used by him and his co-accused.
The two men had rented an Airbnb in the area.
The co-accused is Thomas Foxcroft, 25, who is also from the Bolton area.
Both had arrived in Northern Ireland the night before the drugs were seized.
Opposing bail, a police officer said he believed the two men were part of a larger criminal enterprise which might seek to recoup its losses.
He said there was a risk of flight and that neither accused had any obvious connections to Northern Ireland.
District Judge Michael McElhom said neither accused was a candidate for bail.
He said he did not think police officers in England had sufficient resources to effectively monitor them were they to return to Bolton.
He said a “huge amount of drugs” had been involved in what he described as a “serious criminal enterprise”.
He remanded them in custody until 5 June.
https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2024/0511/1448604-ni-drugs-court/
